Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Ultimate Ramen Champion Part I - Menya Iroha & Tai Sho Ken

Ramen Champion 2011 is held in Singapore this year, on level 4 of Iluma Bugis. Featuring 6 famous stalls from Japan, visitors will get to vote for their favorite bowl of noodles to see the emerging champion at the end June 2012.

How to you go about voting for it? Head to the Ultimate Ramen Champion Facebook page, "Like" it and vote for it under the "Questions" page.

Above is the giant poster of this event, showcasing all 6 chefs of the 6 participating stalls and a picture of their most popular bowl. Some of them are smiling while a few looks really stern. Why do you look so stern if you wanna attract customers?

How do I go about for Ramen Champion? I'll take a page off from Hollywood's book, Trilogy style~ I visited this place 3 times, each visit I will be patronising 2 stalls in no particular preference and order. Oh, just to make sure I do not mix up the flavors, the tasting is done separately where I'll only order the next bowl after I finish one.

So for now, part 1 of the Ultimate Ramen Champion will be on Menya Iroha and Tai Sho Ken ramen.

Menya Iroha

OrderedNegi Tama Ramen $13.50

As the name goes, there is negi(leek), tama(egg) and ramen. Of course it comes with the other ramen mainstays such as Cha Shu slices(2x slice), bamboo shoots and seaweed.The thick noodles are really smooth n slips past my lips without any resistance. The noodles provides a very good bite without being too soft. Char siew is a measly 2 piece which I hope more is given. The deeply marinated meat and melty fat is really a wonderful sensation. Out of all the 6 Ramen stalls, this has got to be the best charsiew.The noodles are simmered in a clear black shoyu(soy sauce) based broth. The flavoring is strong, and this flavoring is also reflected in their egg, thoroughly braised through the core. Despite it being heavy on the flavoring, tasty it still is. If you love your ramen strong and flavorful, this is it for you. I think it would have been a little better if the soup is slightly lighter.Score: 4.0/5.0

Taishoken

Taishoken prides itself as the inventor of tsukemen, that they are the original. Is the original the best?Ordered

Mori Soba

What is tsukemen? It is basically ramen, where the noodles and the soup is separated. Then why separate them and what's the difference between the normal ramen and tsukemen? For tsukemen, the broth is much much thicker and concentrated, so you dip the noodles and slurp it up. For all my explanation, it's essentially dipping noodles.

The thick yellow noodle is nicely cooked and placed in a separate bowl while the goodies are in another.

It is really thick

It is really plain (by itself)

Interested to see how it tastes like, I eagerly dip my noodle and slurp~ it up. Sweet and refreshing! That's the first thing I tasted, but the sweetness of the broth lasted through to the, I would love to say 'end' but I really couldn't finish it while the 'refreshing' is gone as soon as it arrived. I was saturated by the third slurp and really can't taste anything except for sweet. The egg is mildly flavored, half-cooked but is

Broken :S

Guess being the first to create a dish/food doesn't necessarily means the first in taste.

I would love to talk more about the char siew but the broth drenching it was way too sweet and I couldn't really give them a fair judgement.